Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/22



AUTHORS OF EARLY TAMIL CULTURE 11 dialects Villi and Santal prevalent today, bearing close affinity to Dravidian languages. Add to this, the Mohenjo Daro script which is very probably Dravidian.16 Further, Kharian language (also Hurrian) which was spoken in Mitanni at the bend of the Euphrates was one similar to Dravidian languages. Resemblances in the fields of phonology, grammar and lexicology arc striking. The Mittanni were in continuous war with Egypt in the 15th century B.C. and married their prin. cesses. In the same way, a resemblance is traced between Elamite and Brahui. Western Asia was the home of Mitanni and Elamite. The Sumerian language was again agglutinative. Recently Schoener has traced Dravidian place names in Mesopotamia and Iran (See Brown, JAOS, 1930, pp. 273 ff.). Traces of an Indian colony in Memphis 18 have been discovered. The very name Ur spells like a pukka Tamil name. Ur in Tamil literature may denote a village or a town ordinarily in South India. Here in a prediluvian layer was found a bead of amazonite belonging to the Nilgiris (O. G. S. Crawford-Antiquity, VI, p. 259). What is the bearing of all this on the origin of the Dravidians ? It all clearly shows migration of the language with the people speaking that language. Can we conclude from this that Dravidians came from Western Asia ? Surely it must be the otlier way about. The theory of identification of Dasas or Dasyus 19 who are styled as anasas with Dravidians is another ethnological riddle. The term anāsas has been vari. ously interpreted. Some render anāsa-noseless 18.